One of the luminaries of the revolutionary Impressionist movement, French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir created an extraordinary artistic legacy with his fascinating canvases bearing shimmering landscapes, sublime female nudes, sun kissed bathers, and charming portraits

Born to humble beginnings in 1841 in Limoges, France, Renoir was four years old when his father, who was a tailor, moved the family to Paris Living in lodgings at rue d’Argenteuil, near the Louvre Museum, Renoir began to attend a local Catholic school At the age of fourteen, the artist began an apprenticeship at a workshop, where he copied floral designs and other motifs on porcelain items With the mechanisation of the porcelain trade, he moved to paint other decorative things like fans and blinds In 1862, he joined the painting classes of the Swiss artist Charles Gleyre and was admitted to the École des Beaux-Arts after a few months During this time, the reputation of an artist and an assurance of a successful career depended on the reception of his works at the official Paris Salon The artist tasted this success in 1864 with a painting titled ‘La Esmeralda,’ which marked Renoir’s debut at the Salon Around the same time, he also met Édouard Manet, who was nine years his senior and whose unrestrained approach to art would serve as a profound influence on Renoir’s career

Persistent financial difficulties marked the decade of the 1860s for Renoir, but it was also a crucial time for the development of the Impressionist movement Possessing distinct artistic temperament, the generation of great French artists, including Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Paul Cézanne, Berthe Morisot, Edgar Degas, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir unified the movement to give a new voice to modern painting By painting En Plein air or outdoors as opposed to in a studio, they sought to capture the scenic moments of nature under the effect of fleeting natural light With loose brushstrokes, the